WORCESTER MEDICAL
ETHICS

A Roman Catholic Perspective

A project
to assist medical professionals, patients and families in
understanding Roman Catholic teaching on the quality of life and
other moral issues. This is a work in progress. Please check
periodically for updates.

WHY – POURQUOI - POR QUÉ

A Distinctive Ethics of Medicine for Roman Catholics

Moral confusion is not unique to Catholics because there has been an
intellectual revolution in thinking about moral matters in the United
States and even in the Church ever since the 1960s. The information
found within this site is only meant to serve as guidance or as sign
posts, even though its author believes the information contained within
it to be faithful to the Catholic tradition. Since God has ordained that
faith and reason are compatible, every human being must be capable of
knowing the truth and goodness in the world and, thus, should desire to
do what is right, true and good while rejecting what is evil. Catholic
medical morality is not a totally different morality, but its
distinctive feature is the demand for a deeper reliance on God, whose
original plan was corrupted by sin and restored by the sacrifice of
Christ. So, what we are to do and how we are to live has been decisively
revealed to us by Jesus Christ. The words and deeds of Jesus, then, help
us determine what should be done and how we should do it.